ENTITY · CULTURAL PRACTICE

Dinki Mini

Well supported

The song-and-dance tradition of the nine-night wake, strongest in St Mary and Jamaica's east: up-tempo, defiantly lively music in the face of death, danced through the nights after a passing, with the benta -- a bamboo zither -- among its distinctive instruments. Its roots trace to the Congo region of Africa, carried by enslaved people who settled St Mary, Portland and St Ann; the National Library places it specifically on the second through eighth night of the sequence, danced to "lively mento type" music before ring games and Anansi stories take over the later nights.

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At a glance

Type: Cultural practice →
Era: Deep roots and folk continuities →
Confidence: Well supported
Sources: Jamaican folklore scholarship; Jamaica Cultural Development Commission documentation; Jamaica Observer (29 Oct 2021), "Guy takes steps to preserve Dinki Mini as a cultural dance form"; National Library of Jamaica, "History Notes: Information on Jamaica's Culture & Heritage".

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Jamaica Traditional Folk Form Dinki Mini

YOUTUBE · rights discovery only · documents

YouTube upload by the official Jamaica Information Service channel; embedded as a discovery-only reference pending editorial review.

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In stories

Story · Well supportedFrom folk practice to studio language

Revival, Kumina, Maroon and mento traditions supplied the rhythms, drums and speech that Jamaica's recording studios later turned into ska, reggae and dub.